The invention herein pertains to furniture as used in homes and offices and particularly pertains to furniture and manufacturing methods for chairs and the like utilizing stretchable fabrics for the seat and back which do not require springs or webbing suspensions.
With recent increased labor and equipment costs in the furniture industry manufacturers and distributors have often searched foreign markets for less expensive products to import and techniques to reduce their manufacturing costs. While chairs used for offices, professional waiting rooms and homes are generally mass produced and are generally not field replaceable, such require extensive skilled labor, particularly if upholstering steps are needed. Hence, there has been a long felt need for such furniture which is relatively inexpensive to manufacture yet which provides the comfort and styling of higher priced conventional upholstered furniture. With the disadvantages and costs of current furniture manufacturing methods, the present invention was conceived and one of its objectives is to provide furniture structures such as chairs with relatively simple, inexpensive constructions that are aesthetically pleasing and are comfortable to use.
It is another objective of the present invention to provide a furniture structure such as a chair with a stretchable fabric assembly in place of more laborious upholstering and padding techniques.
It is still another objective of the present invention to provide a furniture structure in which a stretchable fabric seat is positioned between opposing side frame members whereby the seat fabric can be selectively drawn to obtain a suitable, comfortable tension.
It is yet another objective of the present invention to provide a method of constructing furniture utilizing fabric which is secured between opposing sides tensioned with threaded members.
It is a further objective of the present invention to provide a method of chair construction in which the back and seat utilize stretchable fabrics.
Another objective of the present invention to provide a method of furniture assembly utilizing conventional woods, plastics and metal materials.
Still another objective of the present invention is to provide a method for chair construction which allows for field replacement of the seat and back fabric components.
It is also an objective of the present invention to provide a method of furniture construction in which relatively unskilled workers can easily learn the assembly processes.
Various other objectives and advantages of the present invention will become apparent to those skilled in the art as a more detailed description is set forth below.
In the preferred embodiment of the invention, a chair is provided which includes a pair of opposing wooden side frame members which are grooved to accept a seat and back. The seat and back are formed by utilizing wooden inserts which are fabric covered and stapled. The inserts are then adjustably attached to opposing side frame members and selectively tensioned using threaded members. The side frame members are grooved to accept the insert as the fabric is stretched during the final tightening of the threaded members. Field replacement of the back and seat are relatively easy and can be accomplished by unskilled persons. A commercially available stretchable fabric such as Collage(trademark) (as manufactured by Matrex, Inc., 911 Northridge Street, Greensboro, N.C. 27403) is utilized. This fabric has elastomeric monofilaments sufficient to provide load bearing properties. When the fabric is tensioned the resilient qualities allow full recovery when the load is removed.
In an alternate embodiment of the invention a desk chair is shown and described having a plurality of rollers. The desk chair is manufactured using metal braces and metal side frame members in the back and seat. Once the seat and back fabrics have been tightened sufficiently, caps are positioned over the sides of the back and seat to enclose the metal frame members which make the chair more aesthetically pleasing.